Frankfurt hires former Bayern Munich assistant Dino Toppmöller as new coach

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Eintracht Frankfurt appointed former Bayern Munich assistant coach Dino Toppmöller as head coach on Monday to replace Oliver Glasner.

The Bundesliga club said the 42-year-old Toppmöller will take over on July 1 on a contract through 2026. He will be joined by assistant coach Nélson Morgado, who is arriving from French team Monaco. Morgado previously worked with Toppmöller in Luxemburg.

Toppmöller is taking over the 2022 Europa League champions almost exactly 30 years after his father coached the team.

Toppmöller, whose father Klaus coached Frankfurt in the 1993-94 season, last worked as an assistant to Bayern Munich coach Julian Nagelsmann, who was fired in March. He previously worked as Nagelsmann's assistant at Leipzig.

“It was only a matter of time before Dino Toppmöller worked as a head coach in the Bundesliga,” Frankfurt sporting director Markus Krösche said.

Toppmöller was briefly in the spotlight when he took over for Nagelsmann for Bayern's Champions League game at Benfica in 2021 after the coach tested positive for the coronavirus. Nagelsmann sent Toppmöller tactical instructions remotely on Bayern's way to a 4-0 win.

Before that, Toppmöller was best known for being the first coach to qualify a team from Luxembourg for the group stage of the Europa League with Dudelange in 2019.

Toppmöller takes over a team which won its first European trophy a year ago under Glasner, who left at the end of the season after Frankfurt management voiced concern about “sporting development and overall performance.”

Frankfurt finished seventh and will play in Europa Conference League qualifying next season. The team lost the German Cup final to Leipzig and was eliminated by Napoli in the last 16 of the Champions League.

Klaus Toppmöller played three games for West Germany in the 1970s and later led Bayer Leverkusen to the 2002 Champions League final as a coach, losing to Real Madrid. His tenure at Frankfurt lasted about nine months in the 1993-94 campaign before he was dismissed with four games of the season remaining.

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